FRANKNESS URGED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1945, Page 6

FRANKNESS URGED

USE OF N.Z. FORCES

FUTURE DISPOSITION

Parliamentary Reporter.

WELLINGTON, this day.

"Hush hush days have gone, and the knowledge that the Japs would be meeting New Zealanders will not affect their suicide rate," remarked Mr. T. L. Macdonald (Nat., Mataura) in the. House of Representatives this morning, when he urged the Government to take the country into its confidence regarding the future disposition of the New Zealand land forces. He could understand, he added, that when Australia, Britain and America were participating, the first impulse of New Zealanders was to ' say: 'Get in and give a hand," but another consideration arose as to whether New Zealanders were wanted. Frankness on the Government's part was needed. The people should be told if our fighting men were wanted and the reasons which were given, but if suspicion arose that it was the Government which was doing the pressing in the absence of any request from the strategists controlling the Far Eastern operations, then it must weaken the morale of New Zealand troops and also the morale of the New Zealand people. The time was ripe, concluded Mr. Macdonald, for a frank discussion of the country's manpower in relation to future commitments and the necessity for expanding our land production.